*Please Note - this is based on my experience, as an 18 year-old student, so those with family looking for a summer holiday may not find this to be the most useful review for them!!*
During mid-July this year, myself along with five other mates jetted off to Magaluf on the Spanish island of Majorca for some sun, sea and sand before we all went our seperate ways to university. Looking for a wild and entertaining week, we opted for Magaluf on it's reputation for satisfying the "18-30" generation. We booked through First Choice and their group "2wentys" - specifically designed for young people going on holiday to destinations such as Magaluf, Ibiza, Corfu etc. We stayed at the Gabarda hotel, a basic two star appartment with a beach only 500 metres away, in Palma Nova, a small town literally ten minutes walk along the beach front to Magaluf - to help us lower the price of our visit, due to us being students of course!! The price we paid was around £300, but that's just an estimation as I didn't book it myself, just simply kept giving my friend instalments of money!
We arrived around midnight at the airport in Palma, the capital of Majorca, having departed from Gatwick two hours earlier. A good five minute walk greeted us from the plane to the luggage collection, along with a hefty wait for our luggage
to arrive, so be weary of that - it's not simply a case of picking up your bags and shooting off into town for some late night/ early morning entertainment! We then took a coach to Palma Nova, that roughly took twenty minutes. After checking in, finding our rooms and being given a talk from our 2wentys reps with regards to what would be happening during the week - trying to sell us anything and everything that was going, and safety aspects such as fire evacuations, it was pushing four in the morning...probably too late for even the most insistent party-goer!
Facilities in the hotel included a swimming pool, sun terrace and sunbeds, snack bar, 24 hour bar serving alcoholic and soft drinks, English speaking reception, safety deposit box facility - which a small fee is required to use, satellite TV, pool tables and Internet access. My friends and I tended to go to the beach rather than use the hotel's alternatives, but an alarming amount of people chose to stay there all day, every day - something I wouldn't entirely recommend - there's a whole new country out there!!
Of course, the first half of our day was made up of sleeping for the majority of the time, but when we did awake, which wasn't TOO late due to the warmth, and the annoying hum of the ceiling fan, our first choice was often to head down to the beach. However, we weren't too repetitive - on a couple of days we made our way into Magaluf using the competitively priced taxi service, to go to places such as "Western Water Park" and "Karting Magaluf" - one being an incredible water park suitable for all the family, and with some nerve-jangling rides, such as "The Beast", which was literally just a sheer drop - not for those of a nervous disposition. The go-karting place, which was merely down the road from the water park, was a little expensive, but good fun on some fairly nippy karts - according to my lap sheet I clocked a top speed of 65km/h - and those were on the 2nd fastest type of kart available. Other daytime activities include your traditional seaside resort entertainments such as crazy golf or banana boat rides. There's also plenty of market stalls and off licences for people to walk around and take a look in - although many are similar and after a while, you think you've seen them all!
One night out that I must recommend before going on about the clubs and pubs is "Pirates" - there are two shows, one suitable for all the family, and one dubbed as the 'uncut' version. It basically blends world class acrobatics, thrilling gymnastics and breathtaking dancing to produce an excellent show to watch and take part in. Food and drink is also included during the show (when I say drink, it was only sangria for us - which we decided was simply the worst drink ever invented!!!) As for a price, I'm not entirely sure as we signed up to it during the talk with our reps on the first night, along with a number of other things such as entry into the Water Park, but www.piratesadventure.com is their offical website - it will give details on prices and more there!!
So what about the nightlife?? Well Palma Nova has a few bars, but no real nightclubs, but some of the late-night bars have English Dj's playing, however, we never spent a night there, instead, as should be the case, we went into Magaluf for the pubs and clubs....
Firstly I should point out that all but a few of the bars and clubs are situated on "The Strip" - one single road based on a hill in magaluf. The story goes that people should try and start at the bottom and work their way up to the top - if they did that, they could very well die of alcohol poisoning by the end of it!!! On a couple of the nights, we went on organised outings with our tour group - although the term 'pub crawl' is apparently outlawed in Magaluf, so they just named the days we went out, such as 'Naughty Sunday' for example.
The very first bar we went to was "Murphy's" - as the title suggests, an Irish pub, with some great tunes with outside seating too - considering when we popped in, it was heaving, so fresh air was ideal!! Secondly we went to "Mulligans", which was literally opposite the first place, so walking far was not an issue that night!! Situated at the top of the strip, with two floors, on the night we went the place was jam-packed, with stuff like drinking games taking place - when we popped in later in the week, the place was almost deserted however!! I could, or perhaps should, write about some more bars here, but the majority are like these two - playing popular dance music, the odd drinking game, and in many places, offers on certain drinks are available.
So, once you've lost all control of your legs via alcohol, it's time to go and dance yourself stupid at a club...
One way to take advantage of the places is to buy an "MCP" - Magaluf Club Pass - which enables you to go to any of five clubs in one night - Bananas, Boomerang, Carwash, Tokyo Joes and Fusion - of which, I went to the first three in that list, never quite making it to the final two!! One (drunk) highlight included on the first night at Carwash watching "The One & Only" Chesney Hawkes - yes, I'm sure you all remember that song!! - proper entertainment!!
But once you've done the MCP for a few nights, that's not all....there's then BCM...a massive night club that defines the nightlife of Magaluf - apparently it's "Europe's biggest leisure company", but regardless of that, it is quite simply a massive place. With a huge outside square full of seating and bars you don't even have to go inside and dance if you don't want to. Their plan is so forth - you pay a set price (24 Euros when we went - roughly £16) - which gives you entry to BCM Planet Dance, a set of freebies, and free drink for the rest of the night from Planet Dance or BCM Beach Bar - a bar near the bottom of the strip. Of course, it is meant to be one drink at a time, but when there's five or six of you, you can spread yourself across the bar, being served by different bar staff - and hey presto - quick, cheap drinks! Just for those who are curious - 'units' or 'measures' of alcohol seem obsolete over there, with staff just throwing in spirits at will - can't be bad!!
Away from the pubs and clubs, there's your manditory McDonald's and KFC to satify your hunger, but also there are plenty of local restaurants serving not only cheap, local dishes such as paella (which I must admit, I can't stand!), but your traditional English grub at good prices, such as a cooked breakfast, due to the vast number of us tourists that go there every year. One small restaurant we went to was delicious, which was right in the centre of Magaluf, unfortunately a similar one along the beach front in Palma Nova, was, to be honest, lousy.
Up the road from our hotel was a Lidl's supermarket, where we brought huge bottles of water from - as it's certainly not recommended to drink straight from the tap there - at complete bargain prices, along with anything else that we had a hankering for.
So, for those around my age, as I originally pointed out - this is the perfect "18-30" destination in my opinion - complete with an incredible nightlife, but don't take it as such as fickle place - there's a vast number of things to do during the daytime for all the family, so by all means bear that in mind when you decide to book your next holiday - this destination is open to all, and then some!
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